Martin Brinkmann

martin photo

Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News back in 2005. Martin started his career as a tech support representative at a large German financial corporation which he used to finance his college education in English, Information Technology and History.


He quit college and his job when Ghacks began to attract a large enough readership. He made the decision to become a full time blogger and webmaster, and has not looked back since.


Martin is interested in all things tech. His primary focus is on desktop operating systems, web browsers, Internet services, and privacy related topics.


He published the book The Complete Windows 10 Privacy Guide: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update version in 2017. Martin writes a weekly column for fellow tech site Betanews as well.


You can reach Martin on Facebook or on Twitter. Please use the contact form at the bottom of the page to contact the author directly.


Martin has been quoted or mentioned in many major online and print publications, including Forbes, Lifehacker.com, ComputerWorld, LinkedIn, Reddit, Betanews.com, Bleeping Computer, TechCrunch, PC World, Tom's Hardware, Slashdot, Hacker News, The Register, and more.


Martin's articles on Ghacks

Remove Protections from DVD folders

Free DVD is a small freeware that is able to remove certain protections and other unwanted features of Video_TS folders on your hard drive. The software can remove the Region Code, Region Code Enhancements, Macrovision and so called UOPS (user operation prohibitions) protections.

DVDFab HD Decrypter

DVDFab HD Decrypter is a free DVD and HD ripper that is able to copy the contents of a movie onto your hard drive even if that movie is copy protected. It can remove DVD copy protections such as CSS, RC, RCE, APS, UOPs and Sony ARccOS and even manages to remove AACS from Blue-Ray and HD-DVD disks which means that it should be possible to copy most DVDs and HD DVDs that you have to your hard disk without running into copy protection problems.

Why DRM is not consumer friendly

I just read an interesting article at Arstechnica by Ken Fisher who was commenting on the termination of Google's commercial Video service. The termination takes effect in just two days which would not be a big problem if the users who bought or rented videos from the service would still be able to play their purchased videos after that date.

Seven entertaining unique Flashgames

I love to play flashgames when I'm on breaks or have some time at hand. The best thing in my opinion is that they are most of the time short enough to entertain you for a few minutes and that they can even motivate non-gamers to give it a try.. or two.

Watch the Summer Olympics 2008 in China online for free

The Summer Olympics 2008 in China will probably be the biggest sport event in 2008 next to the Euro 2008. Many people from all over the world have the opportunity to watch the Summer Olympics live because they have access to television channels who broadcast the event.

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Remove words from the Firefox dictionary

Firefox's build in spell checker is a great asset for everyone who is working with Firefox. It does not matter if you update your blog, are a regular in a forum or like to write reviews on travel sites - the spell checker is a tool that you do not want to miss. New words can be added to the Firefox spell checker by right-clicking the word and choosing Add to Dictionary from the menu.

Remove Custom Notifications information in Windows

Not many Windows users now what the Custom Notifications are or where one could take a look at the elements hidden there. Microsoft describes Custom Notifications as the way in Windows to display active and urgent notifications. These icons show if you have new mail for instance.

WordPress one click installation of plugins and themes

One Click Installer is a Firefox extension and Wordpress plugin combination for Wordpress blog owners replacing the need to upload themes and plugins by ftp with a one click installation in Firefox. The extension will take any link pointing to a plugin or theme and upload it to the right folder of your Wordpress installation without the need to do that manually.

News Ticker Style RSS Feeds

I have been looking for a rss reader for quite some time that would display the latest feeds in a news ticker style known from television news channels such as CNN. I quickly found an interesting Czech freeware that would display all my rss feeds in a news ticker either at the top or at the bottom of my screen.

Microsoft Port Reporter

Microsoft Port Reporter is a handy application that can be installed as a service in Microsoft Windows to log port usage data. The application logs port activity on Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 server systems. A preciser description would be that it logs which ports are used, which process is using the ports, which modules are loaded by the process, if the process is a service and which user account is running the process.

Some Windows Taskbar Tweaks

The Windows taskbar is not only useful for showing which programs and folders are currently active on your system but can also he customized to store permanent shortcuts to applications and folders as well as links to Internet websites. I would like to show you how to configure your taskbar to add your favorite websites as well as links to your most commonly used applications and folders to it.

Blank Urls in Internet Explorer 7 Favorites

A colleague was asking me if I knew of a problem that he experienced after he setup his new computer. He was using the Internet Explorer 7 and witnessed that some of his favorites would apparently lose the url field after a while. The favorites were still there, the description was there but the url was gone and just a blank field remained.

Weekend Fun A Tale of Two Kingdoms

A Tale of Two Kingdoms is a graphic adventure for Windows PCs and Linux that reminds me a lot of old classic Sierra adventures such as Kings Quest or Leisure Suit Larry. […]

firefox mistyped urls

Delete misspelled text in Firefox

Firefox remembers what you write which can lead to some troubles if you misspelled a domain name, login name or other information in the past. The auto complete feature displays all possible results which means that the misspelled names are always shown as well which can lead to some confusion - especially when only one letter is missing or wrong.

Check Sign up Availability of Private Torrent Sites

Many private torrent websites have a user limit in place which makes it impossible for new users to sign up unless an old user gets kicked out of the system, deletes his account or the admins raise the user limit. It is a tedious task to visit those sites daily to make sure that you can sign up eventually.

How to remove browser toolbars

Toolbars are a plague; Every other software, especially free software asks the user if he wants to install a toolbar on his system. This is most of the time not that useful and clutters only the browser window. Some toolbars do not offer an uninstallation routine at all which means that it is problematic to remove them completely from your system.

Use your Printer and Scanner as a Copier

A copier machine is basically a scanner and printer in one device. The clever folks that coded iCopy thought that it would be equally nice to use two machines - that is a printer and a scanner - to emulate a copier. You can use iCopy to scan a document with your scanner and print it afterwards on your copier, all in one task and hassle free.

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Holiday Tip: Store your DVDs on your Notebook

I always take my notebook with me when I go on holidays with my family or friends to make sure that I can update and administrate my websites during that time. I also like to take a few of my DVDs with me to be able to watch them when there is nothing else to do, nothing beats watching a DVD on a rainy day in my opinion.

Goodbye iPhone - here comes Nalu !

Nalu is practically three devices in one with a very intuitive interface. It is a mobile phone, a media player and a text messaging device. While this does not sound unlike the iPhone or any other smartphone currently available it becomes unique when you realize that it has a double hinged case that provides access to the three different interfaces.

Why I disabled Google Analytics and WP-Cache

I was planing to run some benchmarks on my website with various settings to find a result that would reduce loading time for my website for every visitor. I had one script and one plugin in mind that I wanted to test. The first one was the Google Analytics script which I used to be able to access site statistics on the Google Analytics website while the second was the wp-cache plugin for Wordpress which cached database requests but required that gz compression was disabled which resulted in a larger html file that was transferred to each visitor.

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Control Power State of a local or remote PC

Power Off is a freeware for Microsoft Windows that makes it easy to control the power state - that is on, off, standby and so on - on a local or remote computer. You could for instance configure it to set a certain power state when a process ends or scheduled for a day or time.

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Search Google Anonymously

Privacy should be a major concern for everyone on the Internet these days. You would be surprised what search engines such as Google know about you - well, not really about you unless you have a real name account with them and are logged in when performing searches.

Declutter your desk

P5chin who is a regular reader of my blog send me a tip which I immediately had to write about. I don't know a single computer user who is not unhappy with all the cables, power sources and external devices cluttering the place on and beneath the desk.

Synchronize Outlook with FolderShare

If you have to use Microsoft Outlook on more than one computer you might want to keep the data synchronized to be able to work with the latest emails. This is something that can't be accomplished in Outlook which means that we have to rely on third party tools to synchronize the mails between several Outlook installations.

Download 'Watch Now' Movies from Netflix

Netflix, a online movie rentals company, is offering a so called 'Watch Now' service since the beginning of 2007 which allows subscribed users to watch streaming movies. This offer lets you watch x hours of movies where x is the amount that you pay in dollars for your monthly subscription.

How to remove the Linux bootloader

A friend of mine installed Linux next to Windows XP a few weeks ago and did not like it that much and decided to get rid of it. The problem that he faced was that the Linux bootloader was still showing up when he started his system. He was not able to figure out what to do about it and asked me if I knew a way to remove the Linux bootloader from his system so that Windows XP would start immediately.

Gran Paradiso rocks the web

Firefox 3 codename Gran Paradiso will most likely leave alpha phase in September. The release of Gran Paradiso alpha 7 could be the last alpha version and I decided to take a look and see what we can expect in the new version. The first thing that I noticed when starting the new Firefox release was the incredible speed.

35+ Extensions for Thunderbird Users

Thunderbird, the email client from the Mozilla team, was in the news just a few days ago with the announcement that a separate Thunderbird will receive an independent organizational setting allowing the Thunderbird community to determine its own destiny.

Reveal Serial Numbers and Windows keys

Would you be able to write down the serial number of your Windows operating system if I would ask you to do it ? Or of Microsoft Office ? This is normally not a problem because you have the serial number in written form and can look it up if it is needed. But what if you can't find it anymore because it somehow got lost during the last move ?

Windows 7 Wallpaper

Windows 7, the new Microsoft operating system, is still at least three years away but that fact did not seem to bother Deviant Art member Long Z who created an unofficial but great looking Windows 7 wallpaper. Windows 7, which was codenamed Vienna before, is just another codename of course and we will most likely experience another name change in the future.

flickr screen saver

Slickr a Flickr Screensaver

Slickr is a Open Source screensaver for Flickr which gives the user a multitude of possibilities to display images which are pulled from Flickr in realtime. The only real hassle that could get into your way is that Slickr requires a Flickr api key to work. Everyone with a Yahoo account can get one without problems though.

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Monitor your PC with WinPatrol

What happens if your antivirus or antispyware software does not detect a malicious application ? One of the things that will most likely happen is that the malicious application will add itself to the system startup most likely in the registry to make sure it is always executed when the system starts.

Weekend Fun Fighting Fantasy Project

I read several Fighting Fantasy books when I was younger and it was always pure excitement because it was possible to direct the story in a certain way. Let me explain the principle if you have never heard about Fighting Fantasy before. The books were about 400 pages in size telling a fantasy story that reminded of Dungeons and Dragons or Tolkien books.

Scan, Fax and Copy with your mobile phone

I always thought it would be nice to put the camera that most mobile phones are equipped with to got use and have a software that would make it possible to take a picture of a document and fax or send it to someone using the same phone. I don't have a fax because I rarely need it but I miss it dearly whenever I need it.

Video Game Systems Modchip Hysteria

Modchips are evil and are the main reason that the game developers are making less money than they should. This is the number one argument against modchips brought forth by a phalanx of game developers, Industry lobbyists and government officials. The question remains if this holds true or if there are other motives behind using modchips on video game systems.

NOKIA N73 AND THE CASE OF THE BLINKING BLUE LIGHT

I really like my new mobile phone which is a Nokia N73 Music Edition. There is however one disturbing thing and that is a blue light that is blinking whenever my phone is activating sleep mode. Sleep mode is great because it consumes less battery when it is active but that blinking blue light is really getting on my nerves.

Secure WordPress with the first WordPress Worm

Did you know that the latest version of Wordpress contains at least seven security vulnerabilities that could compromise your blog ? If you use Wordpress you should make sure that to fix them as soon as possible. The easiest way to fix them right now is to use the first Wordpress worm - which is a good one - to fix all seven vulnerabilities for you.

midomi song identification

What is the name of this song?

I can't rememeber the name of the song but it goes something like this.. If you ever have been in a situation where you were not able to remember the name of the song that you heard either because it was played on radio or a song of the past you should check out the new service Midomi to get a good chance to discover the songs name.

How to setup Hotlink Protection

Hotlinking is a technique that is frowned upon on the Internet. This happens if you upload a file to your webserver and someone else links to that file directly effectively using your bandwidth to display and / or spread the file on his website. This happens most often with images but it could also be happening with all other files such as zip or pdf.

firefox image toolbar

Firefox Image Toolbar

There are not many features that the Internet Explorer posses that Firefox users have to be jealous about. The image toolbar which is the popup that appears when you hover the mouse over an image to be able to quickly access the most used image commands could be one of the features that you would like to see implemented in Firefox as well.